BOISE -- Gov. Butch Otter stopped short of calling a special legislative session to address child-support enforcement in Idaho on Thursday.
"I'm not prepared to say whether I will call a special session," he told members of the media at a news conference.
The state has until mid-July to comply with federal standards. Otherwise, Idaho will lose out on $46 million total in federal funding and will no longer have access to federal child support enforcement tools and databases.
Leaders at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare say that's a scary thought.
"Without these tools there's really no way to do this job," said Kandee Yearsley, child support director.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare processes about $200 million in child support payments each year.
Yearsley showed KTVB how the state's federally funded database works.
"The locate piece is very important because if we can't find you, we can't get an order," she said.
By cross-checking names and Social Security numbers, the system can track down people who owe child support.
"So if you've changed your address or if the Postal Service has you listed as somewhere, the system trolls the national database and finds where you live," said Yearsley.
All of the data comes from the federal government's information system. It's compiled from the Department of Labor, the State Tax Commission, even corrections.
Yearsley says if Idaho is cut off, all of that access goes away.
"Finding this information would be very difficult without this screen."
Another important tool that could be lost: wage withholding.
"Which is like an order to require the employer to withhold your child support from your paycheck and send that to child support," added Yearsley.
She told KTVB losing access to this powerful system would make Idaho an island, unable to communicate with other states to collect child-support payments.
The Gem State has more than 155,000 child support cases. Around 25,000 of those involve a parent living outside Idaho.
"These tools are vital to the success of the families we serve," she said.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare also uses federal tools to collect past-due payments from federal tax returns.
Yearsley says that's the only child-support payment some families get each year.
